Astronomers discovered the most gigantic black hole yet known and Leonard Nimoy — Mr. Spock from the beloved "Star Trek" series — passed away at the age of 83. Here are Space.com's pics for the top space stories of the week.

The Aragoscope would consist of an orbiting space telescope sitting behind an opaque disc up to 0.5 miles (0.8 kilometers) wide. This disc would be made of a black plastic material, similar to a garbage bag.

An art exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City bring together tools from throughout human history: from ancient artifacts to cutting edge instruments for space exploration.

Europe's last cargo spacecraft came down to Earth in a fiery blaze and scientists reported seeing mysterious plumes emanating from Mars. Here are Space.com's picks for the best space stories of the week.

Orbital ATK, builders of the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Motors and of the future Space Launch System, describe the avionics system for their March 2015 static-fire test of the booster in Promontory, Utah.

Bantam spacecraft should survive for about 15 minutes in Jupiter's thick air before bursting into flame, according to researchers developing a concept mission called SMARA (SMAll Reconnaissance of Atmospheres).

Europe launched a prototype minishuttle on its first space test, SpaceX lofted the DSCOVR space-weather satellite, and scientists questioned whether dark matter is truly "dark." Here are Space.com's picks for the best space stories of the week.

DARPA aims to begin the flight-test phase of its Airborne Launch Assist Space Access program, or ALASA, with a demonstration run in late 2015. If all goes according to plan, a series of 12 orbital flights would then commence in early 2016.

SpaceX aims to launch the DSCOVR space weather satellite, land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket in a reusability test and bring its Dragon cargo capsule safely down to Earth, all in the span of a few hours.

The unmanned space plane, called the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV), is slated to blast off Wednesday at 8 a.m. EST from French Guiana. Its 100-minute suborbital flight is designed to test out re-entry technologies.

The private spaceflight company SpaceX will attempt the ultimate space double-header today (Feb. 8) with the launch of a space weather observatory followed by an ambitious rocket landing attempt on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean.

NASA is gearing up to test an innovative new robot built to explore some of Earth's most inhospitable places: the fiery heart of volcanoes. And the hardy robot may one day help scientists explore volcanoes on other worlds.

The Planetary Society's first LightSail spacecraft will blast off in May from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, to test out critical systems and technologies ahead of a more involved orbital trial in 2016.

Planet Labs has raised $95 million from investors in its latest round of financing. The company designs and builds sharp-eyed Earth-observation satellites that are just 12 inches long by 4 inches wide by 4 inches tall.

Moon Express, which seeks to extract and exploit lunar resources, will base its spacecraft development and flight-test operations at Space Launch Complex 36, a facility at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.